LEBANON — The rain was sporadic but the goals came in a steady stream Wednesday for the Lebanon High girls lacrosse team.

The Raiders routed NHIAA Division II foe Pelham, 13-4, behind three goals each from Tori Palys and Sara Forman, who helped their squad build an 11-0 lead at intermission.

Lebanon, which last season lost to eventual division champion Bow in the playoff quarterfinals, improved to 3-1 and vaulted into fourth place in the 21-team standings.

The Raiders dropped the Pythons to 4-2 but now must play their final 10 games of the regular season during the next 21 days.

“Last week we had five days of practice because the rest of New Hampshire was on spring break,” said 31st-year Lebanon coach Sara Ecker, whose team visits winless Pembroke on Friday. “I usually change practices up, but last week we ran the same practice every single day.”

Little surprise, given Wednesday’s result, that the Raiders focused on offense. A former collegiate defender, Ecker always has her teams on point at that end of the field. The attack, however, sometimes takes a while to round into shape.

Wednesday’s outburst followed a pair of games during which Lebanon had produced just six goals total.

“We weren’t generating any offense,” said Ecker, whose team somehow this season beat Plymouth, 4-2, despite managing only eight shots on goal. “I think it was because we lacked confidence, so we worked on dodges and passing (near the net), and we had eight assisted goals today.”

Abby Auch, Audrey Newton and Savannah Lindsley each scored twice for the hosts, who also received a single strike from Addison Durrell.

Scoring became a question after the graduation last spring of career 100-goal scorer Madison Jewell. Ecker estimated Jewell accounted for 80% of Lebanon’s scoring the last two seasons, and her teammates grew accustomed to letting her take the lead.

“Her loss left us trying to figure things out, and last week gave us an opportunity to do that,” Ecker said. “I think, on any given day, we can hang with any team in Division III.”

The challenge for Lebanon is that in girls lacrosse, the NHIAA divisions for larger schools don’t necessarily house the best teams. Division III schools such as St. Thomas, Gilford, Derryfield, Bow and Hopkinton might, in any given year, be among the Granite State’s best squads.

The division is home to multiple NCAA Division I prospects, and Lebanon is taking on these opponents with only 22 players in its entire program.

Ecker said she long ago accepted that lacrosse rarely ranks among her players’ highest-priority activities.

“That just means our expectations can’t be beyond what we can do,” she said.

Lebanon and its seven seniors will continue to give the division’s best a run this spring.

Newton’s smooth acceleration allows her to glide past opponents, and fellow midfielder Forman displays the same tenacity she did in ice hockey — nonstop hustle and a willingness to play amid traffic.

“She doesn’t stop, she doesn’t quit and she’s not afraid to speak up,” Ecker said of Forman. “Her understanding of the sport is rubbing off on others.”

The Raiders’ defense, led by gritty and aggressive Lucy Eshbaugh, the physically imposing Palys and four-year starting goaltender Drew Kantor, can keep them in most games by itself.

Kantor, one of Lebanon’s few club players, has attended camps and showcases in warmer climes and considered playing at the NCAA Division III level before settling on a biomedical health sciences track at Purdue University.

“She has come so far,” Ecker said of her backstop, who has her own positional coach in former college player and Raiders boys lacrosse coach Rob Fett. “That’s an incredible and invaluable thing that we have.”

Notes: Kantor said she plans to play club lacrosse at Purdue. … Jewell initially attended Boston’s Emerson College and planned to play for the Lions this spring, but then she transferred to the University of New Hampshire, which doesn’t offer women’s lacrosse as a varsity sport. … Lebanon assistant coach Libby Stone is a former Raiders player and 2019 graduate who helped UNH’s women’s lacrosse club team win a national championship. She earned undergraduate and graduate business degrees at UNH and is an associate account manager for a technology recruiting company. … Team manager Sage Murray is a senior who was named May student of the month at Lebanon. She’s headed to Elon (N.C.) University in the fall.

Tris Wykes can be reached at ctwykes@aol.com.